FAQs

CREATIVE INVOICE FINANCE

Invoice finance allows SME’s in a business to business environment to draw down money against sales invoices before the customer actually settles them. This releases working capital for growing businesses.

No. We don’t offer a full invoice factoring service. Full invoice factoring would usually involve a lender taking complete control of your invoices, your credit control and your cash flow. At Creative Capital we provide selective invoice finance which is flexible cash flow finance allowing you to raise funds against individual invoices as and when needed.

No. Invoice Discounting and Invoice Factoring have been around for many years, they are considered to be mature financial services which are rapidly growing in popularity. It is a common and widely used form of short term funding used by many small businesses. Selective Invoice Finance gives business owners a flexible, short term cashflow solution.

Traditionally when entering into a full book factoring arrangement you sell your entire sales ledger to a factoring company, who will provide finance against this. The factoring company will take over all the credit control and debt collection. There may be several different charges to consider including Set up fees, Administration fees and Interest fees. Factoring facilities will also tie you into a long term contract, which can be for as long as 18 month to 2 years and which includes a notice period.

With Selective Invoice Finance from Creative Capital, you only finance the invoices you want to finance, when you want to finance them. You do not pay set up fees, you are not tied into a contract, and you look after the credit control and debt collection, allowing you to maintain your relationships with your key customers.

Unlike many other lenders, we do not ask for a charge on your house, and we do not usually require a debenture either. We do ask our clients to give a personal guarantee when they take on a Selective Invoice Finance facility with us.

Our Selective Invoice Finance service is always on a fully disclosed basis whereby the customer is notified of the transaction. The customer is requested to confirm receipt of our notification as well as acknowledgement of the receipt of the goods or services. The customer is also required to acknowledge that there are no disputes or warranties with the invoice and that they will pay the invoice directly to Creative Capital.

Yes. Creative Capital’s Invoice Finance service does not impact or interfere with any current or future planned borrowing arrangements as we are buying an invoice and not lending funds. We can easily sit alongside other lenders.

Unlike many other invoice finance facilities, we do not have any set up costs. Our Selective Invoice Finance facilities have only one fee associated with them, and that’s the daily interest rate we charge you when you finance through us.

Telephone our friendly team for an ‘in principal’ same day answer telephone 01244 561343 or email info@creativecapitaluk.com – we work hard to provide you with the answers you need as quickly as possible.

Trade finance helps solve supply chain cashflow problems. It can be particularly difficult for small business owners to obtain the required level of funding to buy stocks and support business growth. Creative Trade Finance provides an alternative to traditional bank finance, trade finance frees up your cashflow. In simple terms, we provide the cash you need to help you purchase stock in the UK, Europe or globally. Within your expanding business your customers are ready to buy your stock, you have purchase orders in place and will be raising an invoice to your customer upon delivery, you lack the working capital required to buy the stock. Up to 100% of landed cost price is available. Contact us to find out how we can finance your supply chain.

Yes, we may be able to help you even when you don’t have purchase orders in place. We understand that, in today’s competitive commercial world, you may have to speculate to accumulate. You may not have firm purchase orders. Stock Finance provides working capital which enables you to purchase stock from the UK or globally. Creative Trade Finance provide up to 100% of the lander cost and buy stock for your business. A rolling facility will be put in place which solves your short term or mid term cashflow problem.

Yes. We can provide liquidation stock funding to support Administrators and Insolvency Practitioners. Creative Trade Finance can provide funding for the purchase of liquidated stock. When a company is placed in Administration, stock may have a retained value and the administrator will want to sell the stock. If you have an opportunity to purchase liquidation stock and need funding contact us to discuss the details.

An Asset Finance Bridge can help you buy a piece of machinery or make a significant capital investment in an asset for which a lease is not immediately available. This solves a funding dilemma for business owners. You may need to import an asset such as machinery, once in the UK you are able to use HP or a lease but you lack the cash to get the asset into the UK. Creative Trade Finance can bridge the gap with an asset finance bridge.

Yes. At Creative Trade Finance we have an end to end stock funding solution. You can use our trade finance for working capital which helps you buy stock, you can then use our selective invoice finance to release cash once you raise your invoice to your customer. This is an end to end solution which funds the complete supply chain cycle.

Creative Trade Finance will retain title to the goods, until settlement/payment has been received, thus releasing the stock/title in tranches as it is required. Please feel free to discuss how this has worked beneficially for other customers.How do we find out more about Trade Finance, Stock Finance and the Working Capital for business provided by Creative Capital?

CREATIVE BAD DEBT PROTECTION

Also known as credit insurance, it protects you against your customer going bust, or simply not paying when they should have done. It covers against all insolvent events, as well as protracted default.

There is always a risk of a debtor going bust. As we saw during the last financial crisis, companies of all sizes can go bust, and these can be the most catastrophic. By insuring our debts, we give you the additional peace of mind that should the worst case scenario happen, we will be able to make a claim on your behalf, putting cash back into your business, and further helping to manage your cash flow.

Firstly, credit checking only gives you an opinion of a debtors’ financial strength. If your credit checking facility gets this wrong, there is no recourse back to them. A Credit Insurance company will actually put their money where their mouth is. If they get it wrong and the debtor goes bust whilst you are owed money, they will pay a claim to you. A Credit Insurance company will often have access to more up to date information. They often underwrite based on management accounts supplied to them by debtors, as well as with payment information fed to them by other clients.

No. We simply charge you a blended rate for our Bad Debt Protection and cost of borrowing. As with our non-insured Selective Invoice Finance, we charge a fixed rate which is simple to calculate and budget for.

Yes it is. In order to make sure this is covered, we do have to report seriously overdue debts to our insurance company. Once this has been done, we will then cease to fund against that debtor. This is built into our overall credit control process which we can discuss with you at any time.

ASSET FINANCE BRIDGING

In order to provide the finance required to purchase the new plant or machinery for you, we must have sight of a contract between you and the end financier. This is essential to ensure we have an exit route, and also to make sure the fees being charged to you won’t be prohibitive.

As always, we will try and remain as flexible as we can, and we will consider each individual deal on its own merits. The general rule of thumb is that we will fund a transaction up to 90 days, although the preference would be for up to 60 days.

We will require an unsupported personal guarantee from all directors/shareholders, as well as a debenture against your company. If you are already working with another funder e.g. an invoice finance provider, then we will be happy to liaise with them to agree appropriate priorities between the respective debentures.

We will be happy to consider Asset Bridge Finance to help with purchases ranging between £25,000 and £200,000 per transaction – we will have to restrict our finance to the amount of the independent valuation we would request for any given asset.

We will need to see evidence that the hire purchase or lease finance is in place together with an invoice from the supplier in our name – we would also seek an independent valuation on the asset being purchased and would want an undertaking from the hire purchase or lease provider to send their finance proceeds directly to us once the finance is drawn.

TRADE FINANCE

A Trade Finance Facility is secured with a debenture which gives Creative Capital title over stock. The goods are also bought in our name. As with all of our facilities, we also require an unsupported, fully covering personal guarantee from all directors and major shareholders.

Yes – you should maintain your current product liability, freight, warehouse and any other relevant insurance policies. However, Creative Capital must be noted on them as an interested party. This is something your insurance broker can easily arrange on your behalf.

Yes. You should have at least 6 months experience with your suppliers, and ideally should have sold to your end customers in the past as well. You should also have robust quality control measures in place.

Trade Finance facilities are repaid in a number of ways. Creative Capital will typically take assignment over the final invoice, which your customer pays direct to us. The residual balance is then paid to you. In order to accelerate this process, we will normally use our Selective Invoice Finance Facility (please insert link to SIF page) which means we are repaid more quickly, and you can use your facility again. If you require a full factoring or invoice discounting facility, then we can work with a range of lenders to facilitate this, and will happily recommend people.

Typically, we allow funds to be outstanding for up to 120 days. This period will cover deposit payments (if any have been paid by Creative Capital), manufacturing, shipping and final delivery of the goods.

Our Trade Finance facilities start at £25,000, but can be as large as £200,000 for new clients. We can consider going above this level for clients who have established a good quality trading relationship with us, and will review facilities as required, against your track record with us.

You can use the facility as little or as often as you want. We will set a facility limit, and as long as you are trading within this limit, you are free to draw down when required, subject to any committed future payments.

Ideally, you will contribute towards the deal, typically by paying towards any deposit payments to suppliers. Asking you to have some ‘skin in the game’ is a way of sharing the risk and showing your commitment to the transaction. This will also help to keep your funding costs down.

Trade Finance allows you to bring pre-sold goods into the UK, allowing you to fulfil larger orders which would normally be out of your reach. We buy the goods on your behalf, meaning order placement isn’t restricted by your cash flow. We can finance up to 100% of the landed cost of goods i.e. deposit, balance, VAT, duty and freight.

A stock finance facility is secured through the means of a debenture which give Creative Capital title over the stock owned by our client, as well as unsupported personal guarantees from all company directors.

LEDGER LEND

We will establish a £50,000 facility for you which is the absolute maximum amount you will be able to draw down. We will look at your ledger with you to establish which debtors you will be able to finance, and you will then be able to access up to 60% of that amount.

Only debt financed by Creative Capital will be insured under our policy. If you would like to insure your entire sales ledger, we will happily put you in touch with one of our partners who will be able to arrange this for you.

Ledger Lend is only available to companies who have been established for 3 years or more, and who are trading profitably. Also, we are unable to provide this type of facility to construction companies, or businesses that operate on stage payments.

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